Does the Golden Tenant actually exist?

The ‘Golden Tenant’ is sometimes reminiscent of the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs: something from which you benefit continuously. However, as soon as you ask for further details, it turns out that everyone has a slightly different understanding of what it means. One person calls it the ideal Microsoft 365 environment, set up in accordance with the latest security and compliance standards. Another sees it primarily as a marketing term.

We also refer to a Golden Tenant as a Baseline Tenant or Reference Tenant. We use these definitions interchangeably. “There’s no such thing,” I often hear. “Microsoft is constantly changing, so a gold standard will be obsolete by tomorrow.”

Actually, I do understand that discussion. It’s just that I think we’re asking the wrong question.

The question isn’t whether a “Golden Tenant” exists. The question worth its weight in gold is whether your organization still knows what its own security standard is.

Suppose you could start over tomorrow…

I regularly bring up that question during conversations with CIOs, CISOs, and IT managers.

“If you were to start afresh with Microsoft 365 tomorrow, would you set up the environment exactly as it is today?” Strikingly, there’s often a brief silence at this point.

Not because the current environment is poorly designed. On the contrary. Often, a great deal of time and attention has been invested in it. It’s just that the design was sometimes created three, four or even five years ago. Going back to the drawing board often turns out to be more complex than building on what you already have.

A lot has happened in the meantime. Organisations have adopted hybrid working practices, suppliers are granted access to business systems more frequently, freelancers are being utilised, and Microsoft has added countless new security features. And that is precisely where, for me, the story of a ‘Golden Tenant’ begins: it must be possible to accommodate changes at any time.

It’s not about the layout, but about the idea behind it

I often compare a Golden Tenant to the blueprints of a building. A building is constantly changing. Walls are moved, installations are updated and rooms are repurposed. That’s not a problem, as long as you know how the foundations are structured. Without those foundations, every renovation becomes a matter of guesswork and can even lead to unsafe situations.

A ‘Golden Tenant’ is the benchmark against which you say: if we were to start afresh today, we would design our environment according to these principles. Not because every organisation is the same, but because you have given careful thought to security, compliance and governance.

When can you call a tenant a ‘Golden Tenant’?

A high ‘Secure Score’ is good, as is following Microsoft best practices. But that alone doesn’t make you a ‘Golden Tenant’ – it’s just a solid foundation. You’ll need to answer many questions to achieve that. Can you explain why exceptions exist? Do you know when they were last reviewed? Can you justify why certain Microsoft features are or aren’t being used? And if an auditor asks tomorrow why a specific Conditional Access Policy exists, will anyone still remember how that decision was originally reached? A ‘Golden Tenant’ isn’t just about technology. Above all, it tells the story behind the technology – the human choices that were made and the ability to trace those choices back to their origins.

Perhaps the myth lies elsewhere

A Golden Tenant is not a final destination. It evolves alongside the organisation, incorporating new insights and developments within Microsoft. Perhaps that is why we should stop searching for the perfect Microsoft 365 environment. After all, what seems perfect today will be different tomorrow. An organisation that understands why its environment is set up the way it is – and that keeps that understanding up to date – is, in my view, the closest thing to a Golden Tenant.

More on this in the next blog post.